Steve Roberts is a maker OG (original gangsta). With his amazing Winnebiko and BEHEMOTH projects, and his longtime evangelizing of “high-tech nomadness,” he’s been a leading light in the maker movement for decades. I definitely count him as one of my great inspirations in pursuing artful-engineering (or is it engineered artfulness?) as a lifestyle. Steve has recently published an awesome book, called Reaching Escape Velocity. I review it in the current issue of MAKE, Volume 21. The book is subtitled: “Launching gonzo engineering projects with sponsors, media, volunteers, and other potent forces.” It’s a thin volume, but it’s jam-packed with grand inspiration and practical ideas. I asked Steve if we could share some of it here, and he kindly obliged. — Gareth
From the Foreword:
A Grand Vision is only the beginning. No matter how much passion you bring to bear on the project of your dreams, the odds of actually escaping the “gravity well” are low… unless you find a way to leverage larger forces. This document, derived from 25 years of audacious feats of gonzo engineering, presents the keys to six tools that are essential to a large-scale project:
[ ] A Business Angle
[ ] Your Own Education
[ ] Corporate Sponsorship
[ ] Media Coverage
[ ] A Public Presence
[ ] The Team of Volunteers
I have contemplated publishing a book on this subject for years, and only now (2009) have decided to do so. It can be considered the collection of “trade secrets” that have made my adventures possible… the art of working with sponsors, media, and volunteers to get an insanely ambitious project off the ground and keep it moving on its own momentum.
From Chapter 1: The Business Angle:
The best generalization I can give you is that the boundaries between specialties are where it’s at. It is no accident that most projects in the domain of gonzo engineering are, by their nature, comprised more of new ways of combining existing technologies than of linear envelope-pushing; the latter, while honorable and necessary for ongoing industrial progress, is less likely to yield the kinds of breakthroughs that make the media flock to your door. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with it, it’s just that individuals have a much harder time with “straight ahead” advances in the state of the art than do well-funded companies… that sort of work does lend itself well to structured engineering methods and thus tends to be the most likely course of corporate product development
(think Moore’s Law).
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In response to our Maker Business coverage, I got a wonderful email from Fran Shea of Zeichen Press. She wanted to tell us about her foray into the small letterpress business she started with her sister-in-law, Jen. Being a huge letterpress fanboy, how could I resist? Here’s a short interview I conducted with Fran. — Gareth
Jen (left) and Fran (right) in their element in front of the type cabinets at Zeichen Press
First off, can you give us a little background on your company, where you’re located, what you do, and what made you decide to go into this particular business.
We’re in Minneapolis, MN. We do a few things: We design and letterpress-print a line of greeting cards that are sold in indie boutiques around the world. THE WORLD. We also design and letterpress-print custom projects like: posters, invitations, business cards, etc.. We also handle creative and marketing for companies that trust us to do that for them. Jen’s background is in interior design, and mine is graphic design and art direction, so this seemed like a natural direction.
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AnnMarie Thomas gave a short talk at TED this year on Why Making Matters. She blogged the following, based on the speech she gave:
I truly believe that the one of the best ways to have an impact on the world is to give as many kids and young adults as possible the tools they need to change the world. In a quest to do this, I’ve read a lot of biographies of engineers and inventors whom I respected and began to see an obvious trend.
• Paul MacCready, one of my heroes, designer of human powered aircraft and champion for more sustainable modes of transformation, grew up building model airplanes on his family’s ping pong table to the extent that at the age of 14 he set the world record for flight duration of an autogyro.
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Excellent article – US Manufacturing Is Not Dead…
US Manufacturing is alive and well. The real issue is manufacturing employment, which is dropping like a stone. And the reason for the drop is an increase in productivity.
Read the entire article… or skip to the end…
Here are some general conclusions.
1.) The US still manufactures goods. In fact, the US still manufactures plenty of goods. Take a look at the types of exports in the latest trade data from the Census. It includes exports of industrial supplies, capital goods, autos and consumer goods.
2.) While outsourcing does happen — that is, companies do go overseas to open new factories at the expense of US employees — it is not the primary cause of manufacturing job losses.
3.) Going back to the recent post on employment remember that in this recession the unemployment rate of specific groups was heavily influenced by education level. In fact, according to the BLS, higher education levels (college graduates and above) were remarkably untouched in the latest recession while lower education levels (high school graduates, high school with some secondary education) had higher rates of unemployment. Lower levels of education are typically associated with manufacturing and construction employment — the two areas of jobs that account for the largest percentage of job losses in this recession.
US manufacturing would be greatly helped by two developments.
First, China needs to float its currency. A country that has 10% GDP growth but little currency appreciation is obviously manipulating its currency’s value to a high degree. Given China’s growth rate, investors should be flocking to China driving up the yuan’s value. That is not happening. A real free-floating currency would cure a lot of the trade deficit problems.
Secondly, there have been calls for a US industrial policy — that is, for Washington to essentially “pick winners and losers” by promoting some industries that they feel have a high probability of success. Asian countries have been doing this for years with remarkable success and it is a policy which we clearly need to copy. I’m a big promoter of nano-technology, alternative energy and stem cell research, but those are just my choices. There are plenty others out there that would also make sense.
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Our dynamic DIY duo, John and Erin, take stock and look toward the future of their intrepid little company. — Gareth
Magnolia Atomworks, part 4: The aftermath, lessons learned, and the future
By John Edgar Park and Erin Kelly-Park
Laser cutting the Phi symbol on the original Mystery Box. Phi is the golden ratio, which are the box’s dimensions.
The greatest lesson we learned through this whole process is that everything costs money: you can’t add a single item, feature, idea, person, or process without it digging into your bottom line. If you want to make the most money, you’ve got to do everything yourself. We realized early on that, in our case, we wanted to make a little money on the side, not burn out trying to do everything ourselves. We had minimal expenses in starting our business, so if we can recoup the cost of the laser cutter we bought, within a few years, we’ll be pretty happy.
Prototype of a laser-cut absinthe spoon. It works! And, it may find its way into the Makers Market at some point.
Sales of the Mystery Box have been good. The Maker Shed sold out before Christmas, and we just finished fulfilling their first re-order. This is great, because we didn’t have to do any additional work, just place a re-order with our cutter. Renewed sales are the dream for this sort of business, because it leaves us free to design new things.
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It sounded like a dream: a health club for nerds, only instead of treadmills and weight sets, members paid $125/month to work with CNC routers, laser cutters, and other high-end gadgets. The first of three TechShops opened in Menlo Park, California in 2006 but two more, one in Beaverton OR and the other in Durham, NC followed.
Currently, only the Cali shop remains open.
Both the TechShop Portland and TechShop Durham have closed their doors and are seeking smaller spaces. In the former case, it appears the shop was evicted after missing two months’ rent.
In a Toolmonger.com forum thread, TechShop Durham founder Scott Saxon blamed the economy:
We have just under 25,000 sf here and secured our lease, as did Portland, during financially good times. The economy tanked right after we both started. Lack of funding is not the reason for anything. The reason we are moving is the landlord is unwilling to adjust to the current times. The rent here is simply too much.
We are moving to a much cheaper facility and with our present membership, about the same as Portland, we will succeed in 2010. I believe Portland will do the same. This is not political speak. This is just the way it is as told by the numbers.
Could it also be that the shops are experiencing member drain from the burgeoning hackerspace movement?
What do you think, readers? Is the day of the giant franchised TechShop over, to replaced by smaller, leaner, nonprofit hackerspaces? Will Portland and RDU bounce back along with the economy? Leave your thoughts in comments.
Note: A member of the Portland community asked me to link to the <a href="http://forums.portlandtechshop.com/
“>TechShop Portland forums which has additional discussion of the situation there.
More:
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Great interview @ Lifehacker with Lee (who writes for MAKE each month!)… Kevin writes -
With our DIY Week coming to a close, we thought we’d ask Lee David Zlotoff, creator of MacGyver and inspiration to clever makers and hackers everywhere, to share some of his thoughts on DIY, fix-all tools, widespread MacGyver-love, and MacGruber. Zlotoff grew up in Brooklyn and graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School, where he thrived in shop and pre-engineering classes. After landing in Hollywood, he picked up work as a writer on Hill Street Blues, a producer on Remington Steele, and, through a twist of fate and over-selling, creator and producer of MacGyver, the 1985-1992 action series whose secret agent refused to use a gun, preferred non-violent solutions, getting himself out of tricky situations using whatever he had on hand. Sure, some of the stuff at hand seemed a little too coincidental, but the solutions were vetted by scientists and engineers, even if not every step was shown to prevent eager fans from trying at home.
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